Putting the pieces together - Post merger integration survey 2010

Growth through acquisition is the modern mantra of corporate world. Sustainable value creation is not achieved only by closing the transaction, but by conducting successful joint businesses afterwards. This success is usually elusive and many organisations fail in the process. Research shows that most mergers and acquisitions fail to meet the expectations set for them. This failure could be because of mistakes in all the three phases of the acquisition, pre deal, during the execution and post deal. Post deal phase by virtue of its complexity is probably the biggest culprit. Despite the best intentions, deals often fall short when the time comes to begin translating carefully developed strategy into the right mix of people, process, and technology. The transaction instead of generating synergies ends up reducing enterprise value. Capturing sustained economic value in a merger or acquisition has proven to be one of the most significant challenges for today’s growth minded companies.

The respondents to our Post merger integration survey 2010 echoed the belief that deals fail to achieve their objectives and the post merger integration process is not adequately managed. The report helps in understanding the factors leading to this unhappy situation and shares data on the experience of our respondents on key dimensions.

The report provides insight based on this experience. It gives an indicator of what works and what does not work. Based on the data collected we were able to draw some inferences about what facilitates the integration process. The report gives us pointers to what organisations in the race for acquisitions could do.